


italian food and thank yous

by BooyahFordhamYacht



Series: for sleepless nights and love-lost heartbreak(barisi oneshots) [1]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Italian Food, M/M, Rafael is very forward, Sonny and Amanda are best friends, Sonny has a crush, Sonny passes the bar, cuteness, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7930456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooyahFordhamYacht/pseuds/BooyahFordhamYacht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which Sonny passes the bar and invites Rafael over to his house for Italian food(as a thank you) and Rafael makes his move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	italian food and thank yous

Sonny bursts into Barba’s office with a humongous grin on his face. The noise annoys the ADA, who looks up with an irritated look on his face. Everything about Sonny has annoyed Rafael lately, from his gorgeous eyes to his cute laugh to his kissable lips… Rafael had no idea why or when he had started to think that way about the detective who he usually found nearly unbearable. Those thoughts, especially about Carisi, were, to be frank, irritating.

 

“Guess what, Counselor?” Carisi is so overjoyed that Barba has to restrain himself from smiling as well and elects to roll his eyes at the hyper, puppy-like attitude of the younger man. 

 

“What, Carisi?” Barba raises one eyebrow as he waits for an answer.

 

“I passed the bar! I’m a lawyer!” Carisi shouts, and despite the unnecessarily loud noise, Barba can’t help looking semi-excited for the detective. 

 

“That’s great, Carisi, congratulations. Does this mean you’ll stop following me everywhere I go?” Rafael smirks as he rounds his desk to lean against the front. 

 

Carisi laughs slightly at the jab. “Well, yes, but the reason I’m here is to ask you to dinner.” 

 

Rafael nearly chokes on the coffee he’d taken a sip of. “Excuse me?” he inquires.

 

Carisi blushes when he figures out where he went wrong. “No, no, nothing like that. I, uh, I wanted to cook you dinner as a thank you for all the help you gave me, I wouldn’t have passed the bar without you. You can definitely say no, I, uh…” at that point, Carisi’s speech dissolves into a mess of mumbling and embarrassed blushing. 

 

“Detective, I would love to have you cook me dinner,” Rafael assures him.

 

Sonny’s eyes light up. “Really?” 

 

“Yes.”

 

“Okay, how’s tonight at eight?” Carisi asks, scribbling his address down on a piece of paper. 

 

“Sounds great,”

 

“One question: you like Italian food, correct?” 

 

“Who doesn’t like Italian food, Carisi?” again, Rafael finds himself raising an eyebrow at the younger detective. 

 

**A Few Hours Later:**

 

Rafael was surprisingly nervous as he straightened his tie and slowly raised his hand to knock on the door.

 

Before his knuckles could rap against the wood, the door swings open. Something warm twists in Rafael’s stomach when he realizes that the only way that Sonny could have known that he was coming was if he was checking the peephole, waiting for Barba to arrive. 

 

Sonny looks amazing, and Rafael loses his train of thought for a moment. He’s wearing a light blue shirt that makes his eyes pop, and a silky looking black tie. Best of all, Rafael decides, is the fact that he has left his hair ungelled, and it is surprisingly curly. Normally, the detective wears it gelled straight back, but now it’s soft and in floppy curls on the top of his head, and Barba is overcome with an overwhelming desire to touch it. 

 

“Hello, Counselor.” Carisi greets him, and Rafael snaps out of it. 

 

“Detective, if we’re going to have dinner together, you could at least call me Barba, not counselor. We’re not at work.” Rafael chastises the younger man as Carisi steps aside to allow Barba access to his apartment.

 

It’s not particularly large, but has a cozy sort of affect, and Rafael instantly feels at home, at which point he finds it necessary to remind himself that he is not on a date with the charming detective. Just a friendly dinner, between colleagues. 

 

As Rafael approaches the dinner table, he is taken aback by how good the food looks.

 

Sure enough, after they’re both seated and Rafael tries the first bite of the shrimp scampi, the flavor that explodes in his mouth is exquisite and he nearly moans at the amazing taste.”Wow, Carisi, this is amazing! I mean, Rollins said you could cook, but man, you can really cook!” he exclaims, and the detective blushes once again. 

 

“It’s really nothing. Amanda just thinks it’s amazing because she lives off of takeout when I’m not around.” Carisi waves off the compliment.

 

Rafael feels a pang of jealousy in the pit of his belly at the way Carisi says Amanda. “Amanda?” he asks, clearly inquiring about the fondness in Carisi’s tone when he spoke of the Southern blonde.

 

Carisi understands, laughs, and shakes his head. “No, there’s nothing going on between us. Amanda’s my best friend, and, well, I don’t really swing that way, you know?” 

 

At those words, Rafael chokes on his pasta. Once he’s composed himself, he takes a breath and a good, long look at the nervous detective before him.

 

“Uh, okay then.” Rafael stores that information away for a later time. Hope bubbles in his chest. The counselor had always believed that Carisi was straight, and so had never even considered pursuing his interest in the detective.

 

Sonny still seems nervous, and so Barba flashes him one of his rare genuine smiles, a soft, small one to calm the man in front of him. Carisi returns with his trademark ear-to-ear grin, relaxing almost instantly.

 

Rafael knows he should probably just write it off as wishful thinking, but he could swear he sees something like romantic affection in the detective’s eyes. 

 

Going with his initial instinct, Rafael decides to press Carisi to see what he can find out.

 

“So, you don’t swing that way, Carisi? Which way is it that you  _ do  _ swing?” this time it’s Sonny’s turn to choke on the delicious food. 

 

It takes a minute for Sonny to stop coughing for him to answer, quietly, with deep red cheeks. “Well, ya know, guys,” he mumbles, and the ADA can’t help finding it extremely attractive that when he’s embarrassed, Sonny’s Staten Island accent thickens. 

 

Rafael leans forward, smirking. “Guys, you say? And do you have a specific guy, or is that just all guys?” 

 

Again, Sonny appears startled by the question, and his voice is thick. “One specific guy,” and Rafael knows that his original instinct about Sonny was correct. “Although I think that’s enough questions, I’ll go get dessert.” Carisi’s hands are shaking by the time he gets up to go to the kitchen and Rafael knows that this is the time to make his move. As soon as Sonny disappears around the corner, Rafael stands and follows him. 

 

Sonny’s facing away from him, hands on the counter, head bowed, deep breaths rattling his ribcage. Rafael approaches slowly. Sonny apparently doesn’t hear him coming.

 

“Sonny,” he murmurs, gently, but it still startles him, and he whips around to face Rafael. 

 

Before Sonny can even ask what Rafael is doing, before  _ Rafael  _ can even ask what he himself is doing, the lawyer is leaning up to press his lips against the detective’s mouth.

 

Sonny is frozen in shock for a moment, unable to process, but then it clicks and his hands are around Rafael’s waist, pulling the other man against him. The kiss is passionate and full of all the emotions both have been too unsure to act on for the longest time. 

 

Rafael doesn’t want to pull away, but he needs air and he’s pretty sure that Sonny got the message. 

 

When the two seperate, Sonny stares at the older man, shellshocked. 

 

“Barba,” he whispers through bright red, swollen lips. 

 

“Please call me Rafael. I think me sticking my tongue down your throat constitutes a first name basis, eh Sonny?” Rafael smirks, and Sonny feels the breath rush out of him at Rafael calling him by his first name. 

 

Smiling, Sonny leans in to grab another kiss. 

  
Once they pull apart again, Rafael has another thought. “Thank God you passed the bar,” he laughs. 


End file.
